Curtis Stone jumps to ‘great guy’ George Calombaris’ defence
Curtis Stone has backed embattled chef George Calombaris, calling him a “great guy” in the days after the collapse of his restaurant empire — offering his close pal some wise words of advice.
Fiona Byrne
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Australian culinary king Curtis Stone has offered his help and support to chef and friend George Calombaris following the collapse of his restaurant empire.
“George is a good friend of mine. I hate what has happened to him,” Stone said.
“I have reached out to him and offered my help and support.
“I think he is a great guy, a very genuine, kind, human being and I wish nothing but the best for him.”
Stone, who is launching the Australian arm of his Curtis Stone Events business with his brother Luke and best mate Chris Sheldon this year, said he not ruled establishing a restaurant in Australia.
“I would love to have a restaurant in Melbourne one day, it is just not for right now,” he said.
“Restaurants are a challenge no matter where they are in the world, to be honest with you.
“I would not say no to a restaurant back in Australia, but it has not been right for me just yet.
“To do it right you have to spend at least a good amount of time on the set up of it, making sure the right culture and team is in place and I have got stuff going on in the states right now and it would be too hard for me to carve out that amount of time to do it.”
Curtis Stone Events is already well established in America with clients including Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop business, Paramount Studios, Netflix, NBC, Chase, Wells Fargo and Citibank and high profile pop-ups such as Coachella.
He is confident it will be well-received in Australia.
“It is a humble little business, it is my brother and my best mate and I could not think of two people I would rather be in business with,” Stone said.